


History Repeats Itself

by RomeoandAntoinette



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Lissa/Maribelle, First Kiss, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Museums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16345046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomeoandAntoinette/pseuds/RomeoandAntoinette
Summary: Robin is a newbie to the city who is equal parts stressed-out and over-worked. Olivia, Robin's concerned roommate, begs her friend Chrom to take him to the local museum for a peaceful rendezvous. The two hit it off immediately and become fast friends. However, neither can shake the feeling of familiarity between them. It's almost as if they've met somewhere before. [Part of Chrobin Week 2018, ft. "Legacy."]





	History Repeats Itself

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for user my-name-is-gypsy on Tumblr. She doesn't have an AO3 account, but she's a huge Chrobin fan. Actually, the idea for this entire fic is hers. We were antique shopping one day and she said, "You should write an AU where Chrom and Robin go to a museum together and just act like nerds."
> 
> I thought it might also be fun to work it into Chrobin Week 2018, and what better prompt than "Legacy" for a modern AU about two star-crossed lovers that transcend time and space to find each other again.

“Chrom, look at this!”

At the sound of his name, his attention was instantly pulled from the mundane portrait he’d been looking. His steel-colored gaze traced the sterile outlines of the museum corridor until they landed upon a very familiar silhouette. Even if the other figure had never spoken a word, Chrom would have been able to distinguish the man from the planes and angles of his shadow alone. It was a form he found all too familiar after hours upon days of extensive doting and unrequited stares.

“What is it, Robin?” he asked as he crossed the room to join his friend in looking at something behind a foggy glass case.

“Look at this artifact,” Robin said, his bright eyes not leaving the object trapped within the case. His fingers twitched as if he was antsy to touch it. Inside was an oddly shaped item decorated with multi-colored gems and fanciful metalwork in a sort of feathery, pseudo-brocade. The object had a certain allure to it and glimmered with a golden sheen that seemed otherworldly.

“Isn’t it fascinating?” Robin asked, swiveling his head anxiously to meet Chrom’s gaze.

 “Oh, um…yes, certainly!” Chrom replied, almost forgetting his enthusiasm for a moment. As much as he enjoyed spending time with Robin, he wasn’t much for history. When it came to interests, Chrom was much fonder of literature or poetry. He enjoyed romantic tales of legends and myths, while Robin obsessed over items of historical significance and documentaries. While Chrom obsessed over the tales of legendary heroes, Robin was interested in their strategies and battle tactics more than their valor and righteousness.

In a way, they were on opposite ends of the same spectrum. Not that such small differences mattered. Chrom found that when he was with Robin, he could find enjoyment in almost any activity.

After another second of silence, Chrom adjusted his hands so they fit snugly on his hips. He reevaluated the treasure again with squinted eyes and cocked his head. “So…what is it?”

It looked like a shield to him. Or, perhaps it was a really…really, ornate cooking tray? He couldn’t honestly tell.

“I don’t know,” Robin said, searching for a plaque nearby that would give them more information about the mysterious item. “Some kind of emblem, maybe? I’m sure there’s something around here somewhere to tell us….”

Just when Robin seemed to find said plaque and begin reading it, his eyes instantly flashed when he caught sight of another interesting item and began to drift away from the case.

Chrom had to laugh as he saw his friend’s fingers twitch. It was clear he was literally itching to break the glass and turn the pages.

“I take it you’re having fun?” he asked his friend hopefully.

Robin was too captivated by the wonder of the hall to hear or respond to the inquiry.

Almost as if in a trance, the pale-haired man moved methodically around the room, dancing from one item to another. He spent a few moments examining a sword, then moved onto an embossed book encased in glass and stamped with an ominous insignia that, with each glance, gave him a strange surge of discomfort. The feeling was pushed aside rather quickly, however, whenever he and Robin moved away to examine another relic together.

 He’d get a few sentences into each item’s history before becoming captivated by another artifact and drifting away again. The process had repeated at least ten times already.

 “Oh, Chrom, you have got to see this!” he said, his voice brimming with intense interest that made the man’s chest flutter. Hearing his own name spoken with such palpable delight made Chrom want to swoon. Hell, he barely fought back the urge.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” he replied with a laugh, picking up his pace to keep up with his friend, who was completely absorbed in scanning the room of artifacts. Along the way, Chrom watched with amazement as Robin’s eyes seemed to flit across the paragraphs in mere seconds before moving onto the next item.

Chrom let out a mirthful sigh and said, “You seem like you’re totally in your element right now.”

“Well, I have you to thank for that,” Robin said, breaking his rock-solid concentration long enough to give his friend a handsome smile. “After all, it was your idea to come here.”

The blue-hired man glanced toward the floor to hide traces of the prideful flush of color on his cheeks.

In a way, Chrom couldn’t help but feel a little surge of pride at seeing Robin so happy. After all, it had been his idea for the two of them to spend their day off from their jobs hanging out at the city’s most renowned historic art museum. While there were multiple museums in the city that catered to everything from old documents, ancient weapons and even armor, he figured Robin would enjoy the historical exhibits the most. So far, his suspicion seemed to be correct.

When he’d first asked Robin about going out for the day, he’d felt a little nervous about the prospect of possible rejection. After all, someone so interested in history had probably already visited the site a dozen times and knew even more than the curators about the items on display.

Much to his surprise, Robin enthusiastically agreed. In fact, he said he hadn’t even known about the museum’s existence. 

After his initial surprise, Chrom supposed that made sense. Robin has only moved to the city a few months ago. There were still plenty of places that man probably hadn’t been to before, and Chrom would be the first one to show him.

Chrom’s heart raced at the idea of showing Robin all over the city. Perhaps they could even go out every weekend, even for just a few hours. Robin was already notorious workaholic known for running himself ragged to the point of insomnia. There were times where he didn’t sleep for days.

Chrom even heard on occasions from his friend and Robin’s roommate, Olivia, that the man sometimes just screamed into pillows during moments of stress.

“I’m his best friend, and I know he isn’t normally like this,” the pink-haired woman confessed one day when Chrom had stopped in to drop off some handmade orange and cranberry scones that his sister Lissa and her girlfriend, Maribelle, had made.

Upon arriving, he'd spied a man collapsed on the living room sofa surrounded by coffee mugs, disorganized notebooks, and a faintly glowing laptop. Even though he was asleep, Chrom could see a faint ring of life pulsing power to the thick chambers of his over-the-ear headphones that he's failed to remove before passing out.

“I’m so worried about him,” she had whispered to Chrom. “He was stressed when he came to the city, but it’s only gotten worse. I work on his days off, so I can’t take him anywhere, and he won’t go alone. Can you please, please, please show him around?”

Needless to say, Chrom hadn’t needed much convincing.

Now, they were swiftly moving through the winding halls of a museum together. Even though there was plenty of width in the halls for both to walk at least five feet apart, Chrom found it irresistible to drift closer to the other man. He didn’t want to disturb him or distract him from enjoying the museum, but he felt like Robin’s enthusiasm and excitement was too magnetic to resist. Even so, no amount of unrequited emotion would ever be enough for Chrom to take Robin away from an activity he was clearly engrossed in just so the two could be closer.

“No way!” Robin suddenly said in an excited voice far surpassing an acceptable volume for the inside of a museum. “Chrom, there’s a whole other floor of stuff!”

Chrom tucked his hands into the back pockets of his trousers and teasingly meandered over to him. He stooped over to meet his gaze and said lightly, “Are you ready to go up there now, or do you have to circle around a few more times to read everything?”

“Hey.”

“Just saying, for someone who spends days camped out in front of books and a laptop, you’ve been doing your fair share of running around,” Chrom teased. “Aren’t your legs tired?”

Robin seemed to pick-up on his friend’s good-natured playfulness and gave him a wink.

“Very funny,” Robin clapped back in a dry tone. Still, his impish smile let Chrom know the gentle prod had been taken in jest. “But…now that you say that…”

Robin pursed his lips and looked up at Chrom with a tiny, pleading smile. “I know you were just joking, but if I really did want to look around here a little more, would you wait for me?”

Chrom’s heart thumped and his ribs softened to jelly.

“Yes, of course!” He couldn’t reply fast enough. “You dork, you don’t have to ask that. I’ll just look around a little more until you're ready to move on.”

“Really?” Robin asked incredulously. The man was so caught off-guard he didn’t even resist Chrom’s name-calling. It wasn’t like it wasn’t true, anyway. The edges of Robin’s brown eyes crinkled from withholding an exuberant grin.

Chrom returned his look with a stern nod. “Yes, really.”

“Wow...thank you!” Robin replied promptly, spinning on his heels and starting back toward the historic catacombs of artifacts. “You’re seriously the best. I won’t be too long!”

“Take your time,” Chrom tried to call back but the short man had already vanished among the halls of sprawling murals and shimmering artifacts. He could only laugh and shrug.

“I guess I’ll look around one more time,” Chrom said to himself more than anyone else. “Couldn’t hurt, right?”

While Robin scanned over everything one more time and tried to soak up all the information he could, Chrom meandered a little more intentionally. The idea crossed his mind to return to a handful of exhibits that specifically interested him.

The most distinct item he fancied to review was a large blade with and sumptuous handle adorned with a circular ornament. Typically, Chrom would have never gravitated toward the large weapon, but something about it intrigued him beyond words.

He bent down and ran his fingers along the indents of the words stamped into the worn plaque.

_“Falchion: Sword of the Hero-King”_ it read.

The man’s brow lofted in quiet reflection as he took a step back. Something akin to a wave of nostalgia washed over him, the memories he should have been able to recall were murky. Looking at the blade made him feel strange, so he drifted away from the artifact in search of something else that could distract him.

Yet, before he could move away, he noticed another artifact adjacent to the sword that also caught his attention.

Next to the Falchion was a more jagged sword with a blade that menacingly zigzagged until eventually narrowing toward the tip of the blade.

_“The Levin Sword. Also referred to as Lightning Sword.”_

Chrom blinked. That was a strange name to choose, in his opinion. What in the world could a sword have in common with lightning? The odd nomenclature must have been due to the equally unique shape of the blade. That had to be it. The other possibility was the sword had some kind of electric powers, and despite not knowing much of science, even he knew such a feat was impossible.

He also wondered why the two blades – one powerfully strong and the other brutally asymmetrical in design—would be placed in such proximity to each other.

Further examination of some nearby text provided the curious question was a seemingly simple answer.

_“The Falchion and Levin Sword were two blades belonging to an ancient King and Queen of a lost kingdom. The legend states the King inherited the blade from the legendary Hero-King, from which he was a descendant before assuming the throne in the Halidom of Ylisse. Knowledge of the kingdom, beyond mentions in ancient text, is mostly unknown."_

His mind began to wander as his eyes lazily scanned the text adorning the display. He moved through each word with languid slowness, taking time to soak in all the information about the weapons that he could. For some reason, staring at the mysterious blades was dream-like for him. 

Seconds stretched into minutes as he continued to read the lengthy text until he reached the end.

_"The origins of both blades are still mostly unknown, despite being passed down lineages for generations. Donation by…”_

“Hey, Chrom?”

The blue-haired man’s attention snapped away from the text as he heard Robin approach him from a few feet back.

“Oh, you were reading,” Robin said upon seeing that his companion had been studying one of the exhibits with more keenness than he could have discerned from looking at the back of his head. He continued guiltily, “I’m sorry. I’m done now, but if you’re still looking around, we can stay. You were nice enough to wait for me, so…”

Well, that hadn't taken long. Or, maybe it had? How long had he'd been staring at the swords in the first place?

“No, no,” Chrom laughed, abandoning the ancient weapons to join Robin and walk with him to the stairs. As the duo jogged up the next flight of stairs and up into another area when a thought suddenly dawned on the older man. “Wait a minute, you seemed awfully surprised when you saw that I was actually looking at the exhibits.”

His friend’s head of pale hair bobbed past him as he ascended the last step and whirled around in surprise. “Oh! Um…”

The smile on Chrom’s face was brimming with humor. The easygoing and, although Robin was too shy to admit such, _incredibly handsome_ look on his friend’s face was doing silent wonders to help ease his sudden flare-up of anxiety.

He asked smoothly, “You didn’t think I’d enjoy myself today, did you?”

Robin opened his mouth to object, then snapped it shut and averted his gaze with a sigh. After a few moments of shuffling his feet and looking around for anything else to quickly distract them in the corridor, he finally shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, no…I guess not,” Robin confessed. “I’m sorry.”

Chrom chuckled a bit in a self-deprecating tone. “No, you’re fine. The truth is, I did ask you here today because I thought you’d really enjoy yourself.”

“Yeah,” the smaller man admitted with a small smile. “I figured that.”

Not liking the flash of guilt he saw in Robin’s smoky eyes, Chrom quickly added context to his earlier statement.

“But I’ve actually been having a ton of fun,” Chrom annunciated in a voice that was a little too loud for the museum environment. After a distant and seemingly omnipresent shush quieted him, he continued in a quieter voice, “Seriously. I saw this amazing sword. It was called the Falchion…and this other one too! Damn, what was it called? The Levin Sword. I read about all the history too, and it’s all incredibly interesting. I would have never known that if I hadn’t come here with you today.”

Some tension melted from Robin’s brow.

“Yeah, and…hold on, wait a second,” Chrom said suddenly, taking a pause before going on another tangent. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, why did you agree to meet me today if you thought I wouldn’t enjoy myself?”

Another surge of fear seemed to shoot through Robin’s spine in response to the question.

Chrom quickly reacted and said, “No, no! I’m not saying you shouldn’t have come or anything! I’m just curious. I mean, I know I invited you, but I hope you didn’t accept just to make me happy or you felt obligated…or something. I don’t know.”

Robin’s expression was unreadable. It was only after the phrase ‘I don’t know’ left his lips that he realized he must have sounded panicked and babyish. He had planned today to be a relaxing and fun day for his obviously stressed friend, and he was messing it up with his overly formal and perhaps wishful banter.

“S-Sorry,” Chrom said, suddenly shaking his head. He reached out tentatively to touch Robin’s elbow and nudge him back to the exhibits, where he’d probably enjoy himself more. “Never mind. I’m sorry for making things awkward.”

Chrom pushed lightly, but Robin didn’t budge.

Before the blue-haired man could inquire what was wrong, Robin gently gripped the crook of his friend’s elbow to hold him still for a moment. His grip lingered a little longer than necessary on the swell of muscle he felt in his friend’s arm.

“Um, well,” Robin said, clearing his throat nervously before lifting his head to meet Chrom’s gaze as confidently as he could. “I was actually really interested in coming to this museum. It’s been fun. Really, really fun, but I wouldn’t have wanted to go with anyone else.”

Chrom tilted his head like a confused puppy. Robin stifled a laugh, thankful for the injection of humor. It helped give him the courage for this next statement.

“I agreed because I thought that you… _might_ be asking me on a date,” Robin confessed, a tinge of pink blooming on the high-points of his cheeks.

Chrom blinked once. Twice. Thrice, even, if that was even the proper word. Probably not. Like he could even care because – _holy shit, holy shit, holy shit_ – Robin was incredibly cute, blushing, holding onto his arm ever-so-gently, and admitting that he’d thought they were on a date together.

“You thought I was asking you on a date?” Chrom asked in surprise. His mouth felt a little drier than it had moments before, and he knew it was from anticipation.

A shy nod answered his very tentative inquiry.

While a torrent of elation and shock whirled through Chrom, Robin lowered his hand from Chrom’s elbow and slowly allowed his fingers to drift down the other man’s forearm. Each little touch left swells of gooseflesh behind as his featherlight touches gradually grazed his palm. Slowly, Chrom opened his hands to received Robin’s and squeezed tightly when their fingers interlocked.

“Are…you serious?” Chrom asked with wide eyes as Robin dared to sway closer to him.

Robin laughed a little and gave their joined hands a firm squeeze. “Yeah. The exhibits were, I guess, kind of a bonus.”

The whirlwind of emotions in Chrom’s mind became a full-blown twister. As he fumbled with words after word in an attempt to string together a coherent response, Robin could only watch the other man struggle for only so long. After a few moments, he reached up and cupped Chrom’s cheek to refocus his friend’s attention.

It worked almost instantly. The effect was borderline sobering for the slightly taller man.

Chrom’s steely eyes became almost black with passion as he narrowed his attention back into Robin.

“Chrom, I want to ask you something,” Robin posed in a more serious tone. He shifted his eyes around the museum hall to see if anyone else was around.

“I’m sorry, what?” was all Chrom could manage to say at first. “Oh, ask me something? Yeah, sure.”

It took a few moments for Robin to put together the right phrasing for words to help his friend understand. “How can I put this? Let’s say, hypothetically, you were invited out on one of your days off to spend time with a person you barely knew.”

“Um, okay,” Chrom said, following so far. “So…you and me, right?”

“Right,” Robin replied with a soft laugh, drifting ever closer. “Let’s also say, purely hypothetically, that this stranger was interested in learning more about you and getting closer to you even though you two don’t know them very well. Would you be okay with spending more time with them anyway?”

“Well, I might,” Chrom said, face turning red. “I might hypothetically agree to the offer if I found the person…attractive, maybe.”

Robin poked the tip of Chrom’s nose. “Exactly.”

The puzzle pieces locked into place and Chrom felt a blush set his cheeks aflame. His first thought was that there was no way he was understanding Robin correctly. There had to be a lapse in communication somewhere. Then again, he was never one for flirting or any activities of amorous courtship. Perhaps Robin’s quick wit and intelligent responses had just scrambled his brain and led him to the seemingly impossible suggestion that Robin was interested in dating him.

Before he could vocalize his caution, Robin thankfully changed the subject to something a little easier to digest. At least momentarily.

“Okay, you choose the next exhibit,” Robin prompted with a smile. “I’ve been dragging you around all day.”

“Me?” Chrom asked, still too startles from before to think or a reply so immediately. “Um…well, I don’t know.”

The indifferent answer didn’t dissuade Robin for a second.

“You like art and literature, right?” he asked, his assumption obviously correct like usual. “You were reading the legends of those artifacts earlier and really enjoyed them. At least, you seemed to.”

“Oh, I did enjoy that,” Chrom validated with a slow nod and his mind slowly drifted back to earth from the soaring happiness he’d experienced moments before.

“Well, I think we’ve already seen all those exhibits, but doesn’t this place have a pretty impressive art collection too? There’s medieval art, modern art, expressionist art, whatever that means…but anyway, there’s a lot. We should look at some of those collections too.”

“Huh?” Chrom asked suddenly as something about Robin's statement caught his attention. “I thought you said you had never been here before. You actually seem to know this place pretty well.”

The seemingly innocent question prompted a scheming smile from Robin. A realization dawned on Chrom swiftly a few seconds later.

He ultimately deduced that Robin had been excited enough about their trip to do extra research in advance about the museum and its exhibits. The little detail brought a soft smile to Chrom’s face. Inside him, he felt a little spark of pride and reciprocal mischievousness.

Robin was clearly interested. So, if he was up for a little tactical game of romantic teasing, he could rise to the occasion. Social cat-and-mouse shenanigans weren’t necessarily his forte, but it was sure to be great fun nonetheless.

“Well, in that case, I think I have an idea,” Chrom admitted with a little too much lilt in his voice. “It’s in the modern art area. There’s a piece I want to see. I mean, I want to see if it’s still there.”

“Easy enough,” Robin replied promptly as he gestured to the hallway with an overdramatic flair that was probably just as much for the nearby security cameras as it was Chrom. “Lead on.”

He did exactly that. Chrom started down the hall with a newfound sense of confidence that also did wonders to jog his memory. If he recalled correctly from his last visit as a child, the exhibit he wanted to show Robin would be located on the second floor in a secluded cluster of rooms.

As he relived memories of days past by strolling through the exhibits, some different and some nonchanging, Robin followed behind him loyally. They’d occasionally stop if something interesting caught their attention or if they wanted to muse about a certain piece. It was an easy time-suck to succumb to in the modern art wing, where multimedia exhibits literally glowed and sprang off the wall with an energetic vigor that was only accentuated by how empty the rest of the museum seemed to be. Chrom thought they must have been the only two left in the entire building.

In a way, he was right. Just as they neared the exhibit, a voice pinged over the intercom system to remind al remaining visitors that the museum would be closing soon. The announcement spurred the two of them to pick up their footsteps and slink past every overly cautious security guard along the way.

Finally, they’d arrived at a room Chrom recognized within the wing. The walls were windowless and, if one were to peer through the narrow doorway inside the room, they would only see pitch blankness and a black velvet curtain.

“This is it!” Chrom said with an excited pump of his clenched fist. “Woah. I can’t believe it’s still here after all this time. I thought they would have replaced it by now with something else.”

The inky blackness in the room was too hard for Robin to convincingly ignore.

“Um…yeah,” he responded, more than a little distracted by the oddness of the space compared to the rest of the airy, white-walled establishment. “The artwork is in there?”

“More than that,” Chrom said. “It’s more like the entire room is the art.

Instead of answering any of the other questions he could see slowly forming on Robin’s face, he reached back and gently took his friend by the shoulder. He leaned close as they moved, arm in arm, through the dark corridor.

For a moment, everything was completely black around them. Robin shuffled uncomfortably and leaned against Chrom for both guidance and support.

“Chrom, what the heck is…?”

His question was severed by the sudden appearance of a soft pink light a few feet away. It was a pulsating, warm light that seemed to stream from around a corner. It was also so soft and diffused that, even in pitch blackness, the color didn’t strain Robin’s eyes to look at. Far from it.

Robin felt Chrom’s hand tighten noticeably as they sight as they both continued to navigate the darkness forward. As they approached the pink light, hues of orange and bright green began to also catch Robin’s attention. The colored lights danced and mingled together at the end of the hallway, hovering in a weightless dance above the ground. The intensity of the light grew with each step forward.

Finally, they rounded the corner and saw the source of the dancing colors.

Both had entered a completely vacant room that was adorned with no wall hangings or window. In fact, even though the room was about the size of an average bedroom, there were no other pieces of artwork inside.

There was just one.

In the farthest corner of the room was a single, horizontal lightbulb that stretched precariously between the two walls. The center of the elongated structured glowed bright white, it was filled with starlight.

The outer layer of the glass emitted different shades of light that seemed to consist of every color of the rainbow, plus a few extra Robin wasn’t immediately sure how to describe. The hues of orange, pink and green they’d witnessed before were then joined by swirling patching of other colors that moved about all four walls of the rooms. Blues, purples, reds, yellows and even patches of the purest white cloaked everything in a shifting blanket of perpetual warmth.

The colors were artificially neon in nature and so saturated that it reminded Robin of when he happened to glimpse the city’s skyline at night or in the hours of the early morning when everything glowed with an artificial intensity that was both comforting and intimidating all at once.

Colors clashed and folded into each other seamlessly in and endless loop. Each shade was so intense that even their darkest articles of clothing were completely eclipsed by the swirling twister of rainbow.

For a second, Robin thought he lost Chrom in the display. He would have had it not been for the fact that Chrom’s back was pressed against his shoulder, he thought for sure he would have been too awestruck to pinpoint him in the colorful storm around him.

When he did finally locate Chrom’s face, all words were stolen from his throat.

The way the hues played off the slopes and planes of his handsome face completely robbed Robin of all his thoughts. He wasn’t used to being stunned silent, but there was a first time for everything. Every detail of his face, from the cords in his neck to the darkness of his lashes was amplified under the intense barrage of colors.

When Chrom felt Robin’s gaze lingering on him and flashed a smile in return, it was the only thing that shone brighter to him than any of the other lights in the display.

It was kismet. It was also _so_ familiar. It was as if he’s seen his smile before. Almost as if he’d already loved that smile, and that he’d loved it for millenniums before they’d even stepped foot in the museum together.

A million questions bubbled to the top of his mind. Part of him wanted to dissect them and analyze everything he could. Part of him wanted to confront Chrom and ask him directly, ‘Have we met somewhere before?’

Yet, he couldn’t. More accurately, he didn’t want to.

No thought or ethereal impression was enough to lure him away from the moment. Nothing in the world could have forced his eyes away from Chrom at that moment.

For once in his life, Robin’s mind went blank. He turned his head back to the form and became entranced again in the tempest of light and shadow that continued to pulse around their bodies.

They stood together silently and let the lights swallow their minds and bodies for a few more minutes.

* * *

“Thanks for today,” Robin said, his eyes still shining even as they made their way down the marble steps and into the faintly glowing courtyard. The area was lined with fine landscaping and rose bushes, with statues scattered about and illuminated by ghostly, blue-toned LEDs that created a hazy ring of light in the middle of the darkened property.

It was quite the sight.

“It looks different out here at night,” Chrom said quietly, not wanting his voice to disturb the peacefulness around them. Robin nodded, his head swiveling around to see every angle. It looked almost as if he was looking around to see if anyone was nearby or lingering somewhere in the darkness.

“You don’t have to worry,” Chrom said lightly. “We stayed until closing, so I don’t think anyone else is even…”

Robin suddenly swayed toward his companion and lifted a hand to cup his cheek. Before Chrom took a take a breath and react, his lips were pressed chastely to Robin’s mouth in a kiss that was as quick as it was inexperienced. Before he could even believe it was happening, it was over, and Robin eased down from his tiptoes and returned to his original height.

It was so fast that, for a moment, Chrom thought perhaps he’d imagined it.

Only when Robin drifted away, leaving behind a palpable heat on his lips that hadn’t been present before, did he realize that the kiss had been a reality.

Unsure what to do, Chrom mouthed a single word while locking his gaze back onto Robin’s mischievous smirk.

“Why?”

Robin offered him, impressively, only a shrug in reply. At least, that was all he offered at first.

“You used your day off to bring me here, and you stayed with me all day,” Robin said with a tiny laugh to fill the silence as a wide-eyed Chrom seemed to slowly recover from the literally breathtaking kiss. “I wanted to thank you.”

Chrom opened his mouth to speak but was unsure how to reply. In his mind, he hadn’t really done anything special. He’d taken Robin to a free museum and they’d walked around. They’d talked a bit and he’d showed Robin some artwork he liked. That was hardly anything special in Chrom’s mind.

Yet, it had meant so much more to Robin.

When he failed to form an immediate reply, Robin was quick to step in with his own inquiry to fill the sudden bout of silence.

“Hey, Chrom? Can I ask you something?”

Now that was a question he could answer easily. “Of course.”

 “I was really excited to come here with you today,” Robin confessed, walking a few paces forward as he spoke. Chrom watched his back as the shorter man took a few steps ahead of him before stopping and turning around again. “Do you think we could go even more places together?”

Chrom’s eyes widened sharply.

Okay, sure, the kiss was one thing. Any two people could kiss, and it didn’t have to mean anything more than that. It could be over in a second and them never occur again, remaining a brief and beautiful eclipse in time Chrom would think about whenever he saw any shade of heather grey or soft brown that reminded him of Robin’s eyes.

But that wasn’t it. Robin had admitted that he wanted to see him again. He didn’t just want to go to another place with him. He wanted them to go to more _places_. Plural.

Together.

Chrom inhaled abruptly. This time, he wanted to take a spare moment and attempt to gather the fraying ends of his thoughts instead of just blurting out an answer like before.

The gesture must have alarmed Robin because he quickly followed up his question with, “I don’t want you to just be a free tour guide! That’s not what I’m asking. I just really enjoyed today and…well, I’d like to keep meeting with you. I mean, if that’s alright with you.”

He wanted to keep meeting with him. Robin wanted to keep meeting with him.

Chrom’s thoughts swam recklessly through his head like a gaggle of aggravated sharks. It was hard to determine one emotion from another as they swirled and fought anxiously behind his eyes for dominance.

As he lowered his gaze back down to Robin’s, he knew he needed to say something.

When no reply came, Robin visible began to fidget. He finally asked him, “You…know what I’m asking you, right Chrom? Come on, please say something.”

_Say anything_ , his internal voice begged with finality.

“I do,” he replied before he could stop himself. Encouraged by the sudden spark of life his words lit in Robin’s dark eyes, he gently reached down and took his hand into his. It took very little effort to bring the shaking hand to his lips for a light kiss.

When he pulled away and saw Robin’s face flush a shade of light coral, he couldn’t help but laugh. The addition of a flashy wink completed the princely gesture.

“I do understand,” he teased lowly. “So, where should our next date be?”

Mirth plumed from Robin’s lips like a joyful love song as he practically fell into Chrom’s open arms. The two spun in clumsy circles across the cobblestone walkway, the rose-scented air swirling around their bodies in a sultry cocoon. They eventually came to a stop under and particularly vibrant trellis of blooming flowers. The thick buds swayed mere inches above their heads, overlooking the saucy rendezvous below with tantalizing closeness. Fallen petals softened their footsteps and the air became almost intoxicating thick with the flowers’ perfume. The dark-emerald foliage around them crinkled and swayed to-and-fro with hypnotic romanticism.

First, their hands reconnected with undignified sloppiness that probably felt much more intimate than it looked.

Their fingers met in a tangle and their palms slid together with sensual urgency Chrom previously thought only occurred in romance novels. The hum of cicadas and distant car horns from the city traffic went unnoticed as their heaving chests drifted ever closer. Each moan or whisper elicited from the other would blot out every other indication of the outside world.

Every sensation felt so new, and yet, so comfortable. Chrom almost felt as if he’d touched Robin like this before.

Like, in a previous life, they’d already fallen in love and been together. Each caress was warm and stimulating in the perfect way. _The right way._

Somehow, he even knew his brushing the velvety area of Robin’s elbow would send visible chills up his spine.

The light noticeably darkened around them as the lights from the museum and walkway failed to filter through the arboreal pathway they’d stumbled into, but neither broke eye contact for a second. Chrom’s hand slowly snaked to the back of Robin’s head, his thumb ghosting over the high-point of his cheekbone along the way. Robin’s breath caught in his throat as he shuddered under Chrom’s touch.

He moaned his name roughly, and Chrom felt a different type of urgency begin to throb inside him.

All it took was one more touch, and they were gone again.

Their lips met quickly and heatedly inside the museum garden, with the foliage providing the perfect cover from any potential onlookers, statue and human alike. The blood in Chrom’s body roared in elation as he pulled Robin firmly against him. He entrapped his slightly smaller frame in his arms, as if he never wanted to let him go. He clung to Robin as if they really had been torn apart by time and space, only this time, he wasn’t going to lose him.

“How about we make our next date at your apartment?” Robin asked in the brief second he broke away for oxygen. His tone was throaty and breathless, and it was _doing things_ to Chrom's usually temperate patience. 

“Sure,” he husked deeply, suddenly very tempted to remove the jacket he’d been perfectly comfortable in all evening. His eyes were almost black with passion as his hips met Robin’s with a tantalizing buck that did little to alleviate the newfound firmness he felt below his beltline. In fact, it had the opposite effect.

“So, you mean now, right?”

The sight of Robin’s teeth biting into his slightly raw bottom lip sent another thrill up Chrom’s spine.

“You read my mind,” he said quipped devilish smirk. “Well, what are we waiting for? Lead on.”

The couple slipped their hands together and, after a few more breathless kisses, stole away as quickly as possible past the parking lot and over to the nearest bus station to grab a ride back to Chrom’s place. Along the way, Robin fumbled for his phone and let his roommate Olivia know that he wouldn’t be back until early in the morning. Probably closer to the afternoon.

The pink-haired dancer wouldn’t have stopped Robin even if she wanted to. After all, two soulmates had found each other again, against all odds in the world.

They had tonight. They had many more nights, and days, together. Most importantly, they had each other.

The rest was history.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing a modern AU with a character named Chrom is kinda hilarious. It got a good chuckle out of me.  
> So, the museum is this fic is absolutely a real museum where I live. The light exhibit they see, for those curious or visually-inclined, is based off a piece called “untitled (to Ileana and Michael Sonnabend)” by David Flavin. I exaggerated in this fic for dramatic effect, but the real piece is absolutely stunning. Check out his work in-person if you can.  
> I hope you enjoyed this fic! Thank you so much to reading all the way to the end (even my silly little notes). I really appreciate it. I’m sending you all lots of hugs and kisses.
> 
> Thank you so much, and I’ll see you again soon. Bye for now!


End file.
